home again

so we're back in tx, with a random assortment of pictures in no particular order, as usual!
hannah had her first happy meal. She liked the french fries and apparently shared my opinion of the chicken nuggets. inedible :-). she got a stuffed ronald mcdonald as her toy, which for some strange reason she calls farmer and loves dearly. just to defend myself, we did pack some food, but we ate it for lunch, and on the plane, so by the time we got to supper, we had to make do.


did i mention it was far away? :-) there are only 4 houses that share this road, so technically they live in a gated community :-)


my mom made mosaic tile plates with the kids to put in a path, and they're going to do one every year they're there.


there was alot of rain, which meant alot of playing inside. it got kind of loud :-)



this is the floating dock, which they take in every winter and put out again in the summer. patrick put it out while he was there. this is the coldest summer they've had in 100 yrs.
how special.


this is my favourite picture. it is so hard to get good pictures, because all the adults are normally busy and the kids don't look at the camera. so this my prize!

grandma had waaaay better playdough toys than we do!

this is where hannah, and the others, spent the majority of their time. we are lucky to have a beach, as most of the shoreline is simply rock and trees. the water was very cold, but she didn't seem to mind sitting in it.

right when this was taken, Hannah had looked up and said, mommy, you holding baby emerson? I said yes, baby. Then she's quiet for a second and says, with much excitement, I'm going to be a big sister! I was surprised she seems to be making the connection of another baby.

getting in a little relaxing

so, i looked at pictures and realized i am in fact very pregnant. in case anyone was wondering. :-) this is a spot we've gone "cliff jumping" in the past. we tried it with everybody, but needless to say it was difficult for myself and the kids to climb up. patrick had fun, i hope. i just stayed in the water.

my mom entertained the kids with a boat picnic while meghan and i swam and patrick jumped. ok, i wasn't actually swimming, i was sitting on a life jacket in the water. something about my lungs not working that well. . .

my surfer girl. those water shoes kept many a bloodsucker from attacking her!

patrick drove the boat for tubing. i tried to go with hannah, but it was actually quite difficult to balance us, what with my belly and then her. we gave up. maybe next year!

it's amazing how long she can be entertained by transferring sand, water, or rocks from one place/container to another!

we tried fishing, but not so much luck. we did, however, eat some out of the freezer that did come from the lake, and it was wonderful!

these were the only pictures i got of mom and bob with hannah.

mom and i took the kids on a canoeing trip, which was also more difficult than i expected. hannah was a little nervous, and she insisted on standing right in between my legs, so between her and the belly i couldn't paddle well. but it was fun nonetheless. there are all kinds of little coves and tributaries to visit. we went on sooooo many canoe rides when i was younger. good memories!

nothin like fitting a hoodie under a life jacket! only in canada. or the north in general.

eating cantaloupe. realizing cantaloupe is now very "bubbly" due to slimy bubbly fingers.

there were 6 people there with birthdays within a few weeks, so we had a joint cake. yes, hannah got some.

understanding this falls under the world's scariest picture of me, just bypass that. this was hannah opening a birthday present from grandma, a really neat alphabet train puzzle.

bob's a carpenter, among many other things, and he made this beautiful little bear potty that the kids love. if we had one like this at home, she'd be toilet trained in a day, she likes sitting on it so much!

i'm sorry to say we didn't get a single extended family, crisp family, or even jana/patrick picture. i promise we were all there together! patrick went on to osh kosh, wisconsin, and hannah and i came back by ourselves. 16 hrs door to door, and it even went really until until the last 1.5 hrs. she was exceptionally good in the car, and by the time we landed in dallas that night, i would have been screaming too except i'm not allowed, being an adult. i didn't even go into labour carrying my 28 lb child, large diaper bag, her backpack, my 49 lb suitcase and the carseat strapped on. don't tell patrick, but i couldn't justify $4 on a luggage cart!

we had an appointment today, and charlie's measuring 35 1/2 centimeters, which just happens to be exactly how far along i am. they are coming for the home visit next week, and we are writing our birth plan, whatever that means! now that i'm almost 36 wks, he can come anytime, because we can stay home. (before that time, they would have me go to the hospital). so, all that to say, it's more a reality now. we're actually going to be having another baby!